La Trinidad Opal Mines Tequisquiapan

I had a very long walk up to the Opal Mines near Tequisquiapan last week.  This is a popular tourist attraction and the road up goes through some interesting cactus-dominated habitat.  Unfortunately, the weather was poor when I went.  Nevertheless, I found some good birds, particularly at the top when it brightened up a bit.

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

It's the closest to Tequis that I have found Rock Wrens.  Spotted Towhees, White-throated Swifts, Blue Mockingbirds, Scott's Orioles and 2 Lucifer Hummingbirds were also very nice to see.

Ash-throated Flycatcher is fairly easy to see around Tequis, but the 10 I found up at La Trinidad represents a good number.

Red-tailed Hawk

Had a brief walk around La Presa this morning to see if anything was about and, as usual, it came up trumps.

Seven species of Duck included: Shoveler (in ridiculous numbers >10000), Ruddy Duck (1000+), Pintail (300), Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Mexican Duck (100) and best of all a drake Ring-necked Duck loafing around, a new bird for my Mexico list.

Also a LOT of Eared Grebes and American Coots. Waders included Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilt, Spotted Sandpiper, Least Sandpipers (4) and several Killdeer.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was seeing a Red-tailed Hawk feasting on a dead Coot before heading into some nearby trees. Here's some shots of it.

Other birds of note:

American White Pelican (soaring flocks of 6 and 4)

Scott's Oriole (4 by La Palapa)

Black Phoebe (2 at dam)

Barn Swallow (20 - the biggest concentration since the birds departed. Guess they're on their way back)